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Fitzy's Canadian Road Trip

3 weeks, 5 provinces, 9 campsites, 6 hotels, 10 556 km

Fitzys Cross Canada Road Trip - Our RouteThis is roughly the route we took on our trip. This screen grab from Google Maps is but we used paper maps to navigate most of the time.

It’s been just over a week since I got back from the road trip of a lifetime. I spent 22 days (just over 3 weeks) road tripping across Canada with my husband Albert. We drove from Toronto, ON, all the way to Victoria, BC, and back. We’ve been wanting to make the trip for about 8 years now, and I’m beyond grateful that we had the time, and the means to make it happen.

We live in the biggest city in Canada, and absolutely love it, but our other favourite thing to do, besides hanging out in Toronto, is get as far away from those 2.8 million people as possible and go camping. So a huge part of our trip was camping in all sorts of provincial, and national parks. I wanted to experience as many different Canadian landscapes as possible. We drove for about 8 hours a day, so I spent a whole lot of time just looking out the window (and not being bored). If you know much about Canadian geography, then you know that travelling west from Toronto we have the Great Lakes, and Canadian Shield, followed by the Prairies, then there's the Rocky Mountains, the Coastal Mountains, and the Ocean (roughly). It was so amazing to see the landscape changing slowly from one type to another as we drove across the country. All of them were so different from one another, but still apart of our giant country. I do feel like I can now somewhat comprehend just how big Canada is having driven across such a tiny sliver of it for 22 days. Canada is such an amazing huge, diverse and beautiful place. We’re already planning our next road trip, this time out East!

I’ve put together a tiny sliver of our road trip for you guys. Here is a photo from each of our 22 days on the road:

1. Sunset at Lake Superior Provincial Park
 Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - Bathtub Island in Lake Superior
2. Secret Spot: Bathub Island 
 
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - Quetico Provincal Park
3. Camping in the Rain at Quetico Provincial Park
 
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - Crossing the Border into Manitoba
4. Crossing the Border into Manitoba
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - Bison at Grasslands National Park
5. Bison at Grasslands National Park
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - Grasslands National Park
6. Grasslands National Park
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - Sunrise at Grasslands National Park
7. Getting Up With the Sun at Grasslands National Park
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - Camping at Two Jack Lakeside at Banff National Park
8. The View from Our Campsite at Banff National Park
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - Rearguard Falls in BC
9. Rearguard Falls in BC
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - Tsek Hot Springs in BC
10. Relaxing at Tsek Hot Springs
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - The Ferry to Victoria
11. Taking the Ferry to Vancouver Island
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - Oysters at Ferris in Victoria BC
12. Oysters at Ferris in Victoria BC
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - Lavender in Kamloops British Columbia
13. Lavender in Kamloops BC
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - Camping in Glacier National Park Canada
14. Glacier National Park (right before it started to snow)
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - The Alberta Badlands at Dinosaur National Park
15. The Alberta Badlands in Dinosaur Provincial Park
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - Peters Drive In Calgary Alberta
16. The Best Milkshake of My Life from Peter's Drive-In, Calgary AB
 
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - Hiking Nose Hill in Calgary Alberta
17. Hiking at Nose Hill in Calgary AB
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - Dinosaur Fossils at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller Alberta
18. Dinosaur Fossils at the Royal Tyrrell Museum
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - Winnipeg Manitoba
19. Railroad Memorabilia in Winnipeg MB
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - Our First KOA in Thunder Bay Ontarios
20. Our First KOA in Thunder Bay Ontario
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - The Original Goose in Wawa Ontario
21. The Original Goose of Wawa Ontario
Fitzy Cross Canada Road Trip - Canadian Shield Along the French River in Ontario
22. Canadian Shield along the French River

 

P.S. For those of you who are planning to do your own trip across Canada here’s a rundown of where we were everyday. We drove about eight hours a day, and spent 3/22 days not driving at all.

  1. Toronto → Lake Superior
  2. Lake Superior
  3. Lake Superior → Quetico
  4. Quetico → Winnipeg
  5. Winnipeg → Grasslands
  6. Grasslands
  7. Grasslands → Banff
  8. Banff → Jasper
  9. Jasper → Nairn Falls
  10. Nairn Falls → Vancouver
  11. Vancouver → Victoria
  12. Victoria
  13. Victoria → Glacier
  14. Glacier → Dinosaur
  15. Dinosaur → Brooks
  16. Brooks → Calgary
  17. Calgary
  18. Calgary → Moose Jaw
  19. Moose Jaw → Winnipeg
  20. Winnipeg → Thunder Bay
  21. Thunder Bay → Wawa
  22. Wawa → Toronto

Comments

Franz Maser

Hi to everyone who may read this,
we live in Germany and plan to travel through the western part of Canada next year. (The eastern part from Halifax to Toronto, we did it some years ago). We intend to start from Winnipeg, get us a rental there and drive to Vancouver. May I ask: What time of the year did you travel? And: Thank you for the information provided in your blog.
Best wishes,
Franz

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